USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Old times in old Monmouth > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
afterwards pardoned, jumped into the boat, hurrahing for the British, and rowed off and joined them. Another refugee named William Dillon, who had also been sen- tenced to death at Freehold and pardon- ed. joined this party of British as pilot."
By the following extract it will be seen that the regenades McMullen and Dillon, had been out of jail but a very few weeks, when they aided the British in this expe- dition :
" July 22d, 1778. We learn that at the Court of Oyer and Terminer, held at Mon- mouth in June last, the following parties were tried and found guilty of burglary, viz : Thomas Emmons alias Burke, John Wood, Michael Millery, William Dillon and Robert McMullen. The two former were executed on Friday last, and the other three reprieved."
MeMullen probably had some connec- tion with the expedition-perhaps to spy out the whereabouts of the captured car- go, as he would not have been in that vi- cinity unless assured that a British force was at hand.
One tradition states that when he jump ed into the boat he was flying for his life -" that he was pursued by the Americans and escaped by swimming his horse across the river near its mouth to a point which he called Goodluck Point to commemorate his escape."
Goodluck Point near the mouth of Toms River, undoubtedly. received its name from some person flying for his life in the above manner, and it is possible that it might have been McMullen.
" On the 9th of December, 1778, it is an- nounced that a British armed vessel. bound from Halifax to New York, and richly laden, came ashore near Barnegat: The crew, about sixty in number, surrendered themselves prisoners to our militia. Goods to the amount of five thousand pounds sterling were taken out of her by our citi zens, and a number of prisoners sent to Bordentown, at which place the balance of prisoners were expected. About March, 1779, the sloop Success, came ashore in a snow storm, at Barnegat. She had been taken by the British brig Diligence, and was on her way to New York. She had a valuable cargo of rum, molasses, coffee, cocoa, &c., on board. The Prize master and three hands were made prisoners and sent to Princeton. In the case of this ves- sel and the one previously mentioned it is probable the Toms River militia aided, as
The captain of the ship and most of his officers escaped to the main land in one of the ship's boats. After they got ashore a man named Robert McMullen, who had been condemned to death at Freehold but | the name of Barnegat was frequently ap-
69
OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
plied to the shore north of the inlet, both on the beach and on the main land.
Feb. 8th, 1779, the sloop Fancy and schooner Hope. with cargoes of pitch. tar and salt are advertised for sale at Toms River by the U. S. Marshal. They were probably prizes. The Major Van Emburg mentioned in the following, belonged to the 2d Reg. Middlesex militia ; he was ta- ken May 14, 1780.
On the 5th of June, 1780, an ancient pa- per says : "On Sunday morning, Major Van Emburg and eight or nine men from West Jersey, on a fishing party, were sur- prised in bed at Toms River by the Refu- gees, and put on board a vessel to be sent prisoners to New York, but before the vessel sailed they fortunately managed to escape."
Toms River then did not seem quite as desirable place for pleasure resort as it is in the present day. History does not tell us whether the Major was successful in catching fish ; all we know is that he got caught himself.
About the middle of December, 1789, a British brig in the West India trade; was captured and brought into Toms River .- This brig was short of water and provisions and mistaking the land for Long Island, sent a boat and four men ashore to obtain supplies. The militia hearing of it man- ned two boats and went out and took her. She had on board 150 hhds of rum and spirits, which our ancestors pronounced " excellent," by which we conclude they must have considered themselves compet- ent judges of the article! With the British, rum must have been a necessity, as in every prize taken from them rum was an important part of the cargo.
The British brig Molly, was driven ashore in a snow storm near Barnegat ; her prize crew were taken prisoners by the militia and sent to Philadelphia.
In December, 1780, Lieut. Joshua Stud- son of Toms River, was shot by the refu- gee Bacon, inside of Cranberry inlet. The particulars of this affair are given in a notice of Bacon's career, and therefor it is unnecessary to repeat them.
March 19, 1782. The privateer Dart, Capt. Wm. Gray, of Salem, Mass., arrived at Toms River with a prize sloop, taken from the British galley Black Jack. The next day he went with his boat and seven men in pursuit of a British brig near the bar. Unfortunately for Capt. Gray, in stead of taking a prize he was taken him- self. For a long time after, the Toms Riv-
er people wondered what had become of him. In August following they heard from him. After getting outside the bar he was taken prisoner, and carried to Hali- fax, and subsequently released on parole. He stated he was well treated while a prisoner.
A few days after Capt. Gray was taken, the British attacked and burned Toms River. This was the last affair of any im- portance occuring in the immediate vicini- ty of Toms River during the war. But south of Toms River several noted affairs afterwards occurred. Davenport burned the salt works at Forked River, and was himself killed in June ; in October, Bacon attacked and killed several men on the beach south of Barnegat lighthouse ; in December, occurred the skirmish at Cedar Creek, where young Cooke was killed ; on the 3d of April following, (1783,) Bacon was killed near West Creek
A RHODE ISLAND PRIZE.
The original and following certificate is in pressession of Ephraim P. Empson, Esq., of Colliers Mills :
PROVIDENCE, Feb. 21, 1777.
This may certify that Messrs. Clark and Nightingale and Captain William Rhodes have purchased here at vendue, the schooner Pope's Head, which was taken by the privateers Sally and Joseph (under our command) and carried into Cranberry Inlet, in the Jersies, and there delivered to the care of Mr. James Randolph by our prize masters. JAMES MARO. JOHN FISH.
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.
During the war there were interesting events occurring at Toms River, outside of military and naval matters.
In January, 1778, the sloop Two Friends, Capt. Alex. Bonnett of Hispaniola, was cast away near Barnegat, with 1,600 bags of salt, 49 hhds molasses, also a lot of rum, sugar, &c. Only 160 galls, rum saved. The shore people went to their assistance but one man was lost. The Capt. of the Two Friends, Alex. Bonnett, then shipped as a passenger in the sloop Endeavor of Toms River, for New York, but sad to relate, while she lay at anchor in the inlet, a storm at night parted the cable and all on board were drowned in the bay.
In December, 1778, Capt. Alexander of the sloop Elizabeth of Baltimore, was taken by the British, but he was permitted to leave in his small boat, and landed in Toms River inlet.
70
OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
It was during the war, in the year 1777, that Rev. Benjamin Abbott, expounded the then new principles of Methodism, to the people of Toms River, first at the house of Esquire Abiel Aikens, and then at another place when "a Frenchman fell to the floor, and never rose until the Lord converted his soul. Here (at Toms Riv- er), we had a happy time," so says Abbott in his journal.
During the war there was of course no communication with New York, but the people of Toms River had considerable overland intercourse with West Jersey, Philadelphia and Freehold.
THE REFUGEES.
Historians generally concede that no state among the old thirteen suffered dur- ing the war of the revolution more than did New Jersey ; and it is generally ad- mitted that no county in our State sutfer- ed more than did old Monmouth. In ad- dition to the outrages to which the citizens weze subjected from the regular British army, they were continually harassed by depredations committed by regularly or- ganized bands of Refugees and also by the lawless acts of a set of outcasts known as "the Pine Woods Robbers," who though pretending to be Royalists yet if opportunity offered, robbed Royalists as well as Americans.
The Refugees or Loyalists, as they call- ed themselves, were renegade Americans, regularly organized with officers commis- sioned by the " Board of Associated Loy- alists " at New York. Of. this body the first president was Daniel Coxe, a Jersey- man. It was organized in 1779, and its objects were the examination of captured Americans and suspected persons, and the planning of measures for procuring intel- ligence, and otherwise aiding the Royal cause. Coxe was appointed President (said a Refugee) to deprive him of the op- portunity of speaking, as " he had the gift of saying little with many words." Anoth- er President of the Board was William Franklin, a natural son of Benjamin Franklin, and the last Tory Governor of New Jersey.
It is not probable that all who were called Jersey Refugees where natives of the state ; too many were it is true : but the thrift and industry of the inhabitants of old Modmouth, once the richest county in the state, the advantageof deep swamps for hiding, the proximity of Raritan Bay
and the seaboard rendering it convenient to send plunder to New York, all formed attractions to draw here villains from other parts whose chief object was plun- der, who scrupled at no crime to obtain booty or to gratify revenge.
The character of some of these men is clearly set forth in the following extracts, the first from Whig and the other from Tory authority.
Gov. Livingston, the able, fearless and eloquent first patriot Governor of New Jersey, in a message to the Legislature in 1777, says :
" The Royalists ( Refugees) have plun- dered friends as well as foes : effects capa- ble of division they have divided ; such as were not they have destroyed. They have wa red on decrepid old age and upon de- fenceless youth ; they have committed hostilities against the professors of litera- ture and against the ministers of religion ; against public records and private monu- ments, books of improvements and papers of curiosity, and against the arts and sci- ences. They have butchered the wound- ed when asking for quarter, mangled the dead while weltering in their blood ; re- fused to the dead their right of sepulture, suffered prisoners to perish for want of sustenance, violated the chastity of wo men, disfigured private dwellings of taste and elegance, and in their rage of impiety and barbarism, profaned edifices dedica- ted to Almighty God."
Strong and emphatic as is the foregoing language ofthe patriotic Livingston, yet it fails to portray the brutality . of some wretches who pretended to be Refugee Loyalists as clearly as the following brief extract from the evidence of a Tory nam- ed Galloway, of Pennsylvania, given un- der oath before Parliament. At the break- ing out of the Revolution, Galloway, a Pennsylvanian of wealth and standing, sided with the Whigs, but soon turned Tory, and his property to the amount of £40,000 was confiscated. Speaking of Refugee outrages, he said :
" Respecting indiscriminate plunder it is known to thousands. In respect to rapes, a solemn inquiry was made and af- fidavit taken by which it appears that no less than twenty-three were committed in one neighborhood in New Jersey, some of them on married women, in presence of their helpless husbands, and others on daughters while their unhappy parents with unavailing tears and cries could only deplore their savage brutality.".
71
OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
This was the evidence of as reliable a man as ever sided with the Tories. In corroboration of the foregoing we might instance, among other things, the burn- ing of churches in Essex county, of ravish- ment of women (one of them nearly sev- enty years old), &c. And Jerseymen have the mortification of knowing that wretch es pretending to be natives of this state disgraced the soil that gave them birth by acts of brutality elsewhere, among which may be mentioned the cold blood- ed murder of the brave Col. Ledyard at Fort Griswold, Conn., by a wretch known as the " Jersey Refugee, Bromfield." Af- ter the Americans had surrendered the fort, Bromfield asked who commanded it. The heroic Ledyard replied " I did, but you do now," and he delivered his sword to Bromfield. The cold blooded villain took it and immediately stabbed Ledyard to the heart.
That all the regularly organized Refu gees or Loyalists as they called themselves were not as hardened villains as above de- scribed we shall endeavor to show here- after. The best class of them were too honorable to engage in midnight marau- ding expeditions against their former friends and neighbors, but cast their lot with the regular British army, most of them in a military organization known as the " First Battalion New Jersey Royal Volunteers," of which a prominent officer was an ex-sheriff of old Monmouth. These New Jersey Royalists were some. times termed " the Greens " and " Gene- ral Skinner's Greens." General Skinner was their most noted commander, of whom a notice will be given hereafter, as also of other prominent officers.
To give an idea of the troublous times in which lived the citizens of old Monmouth, the following extracts from various sour- ces are furnished, before which, we give the names of some of the officers of
THE MONMOUTH MILITIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
The following are some of the officers of the militia of old Monmouth during the war:
First Regiment.
George Taylor, Colonel. (Deserted to the enemy. )
Nathaniel Scudder, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel.
Asher Holmes, First Major, Colonel.
John Smock, Captain, Major, Lieuten- ant Colonel, Colonel.
Thomas Seabrook, First Major, Lieuten- ant Colonel.
Elisha Walton, Ensign, Captain, Second Major, First Major.
Thomas Hunn, Captain, Second Major. Kenneth Anderson, Adjutant.
David Rhea, jr., Adjutant.
John Stilwell, Quartermaster.
John Campbell, Quartermaster. Richard Hartshorne, Quartermaster.
Thomas Barber, Surgeon.
Jacob Hubbard, Surgeon.
John Scudder, Surgeon's Mate.
Second Regiment.
David Brearley, Colonel.
Joseph Salter, Lieutenant Colonel.
- Samuel Forman, Captain, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel.
Elisha Lawrence, jr., First Major, Lieu- tenant Colonel.
William Montgomery. Captain, First Major.
James Mott, Second Major.
John Cook, Captain, Second Major.
Third Regiment.
Samuel Breese, Colonel. Daniel Hendrickson, Colonel.
Auke Wikoff, Lieutenant Colonel, Colo nel.
Dennis Denise, First Major.
Hendrick VanBrunt, Lieutenant, Cap- tain, Second Major.
Of the First Regiment the first Colonel (Taylor) went over to the enemy ; its next Colonel, Nathaniel Scudder, was killed at Black Point, Oct. 15th, 1781. Asher Holmes appears to have been transferred to a State Regiment.
A more extended list of officers and privates in these and other organizations will be furuished hereafter.
REFUGEE RAIDS IN OLD MON- MOUTH.
" June 3d, 1778. We are informed that on Wednesday morning last, a party of about seventy of the Greens from Sandy Hook, landed near Major Kearney's ( near Keyport ) headed the Mill Creek, Middle- town Point, and marched to Mr. John Burrows, made him prisoner, burnt his mills and both his store houses, all valua- ble buildings, besides a great deal of fur- niture. They also took prisoners Lieuten- ant Colonel Smock, Captain Christopher Little, Mr. Joseph Wall, Capt. Joseph Co- venhoven ( Conover ) and several other persons, and killed Messrs. Pearce and
72
OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
Van Brockle, and wounded another man mortally. Having completed this and several other barbarities. they precipitate- ly returned the same morning to give an account of their abominable deeds to their bloody employers. A number of these gentry, we learn, were formerly inhabi- tants of that neighborhood."
April 26th, 1779. An expedition con- sisting of seven or eight hundred men un- der Colonel Hyde, went to Middletown, Red Bank, Tinton Falls, Shrewsbury and other places, robbing and burning as they went. They took Justice Coyenhoven and others, prisoners. Capt. Burrows and Col. Holmes assembled our militia and killed three and wounded fifteen of the enemy. The enemy, however, succeeded in carry- ing off horses, cattle and other plunder.
In May, two or three weeks after the above affair, some two or three hundred Tories landed at Middletown on a "pica rooning" ( plundering ) expedition, but were repulsed before doing much harm.
June 9th, 1779. A party of about fifty Refugees landed in Monmouth and march- ed to Tinton Falls undiscovered, where they surprised and carried off Col. Hen- drickson, Col. Wyckoff, Capt. Chadwick and Capt. McKnight, and several privates of the militia, and drove off sheep and horned cattle. About thirty of our mili- tia hastily collected, made some resistance, but were repulsed with the loss of two men killed and ten wounded, the enemy's loss unknown.
April 1st, 1780. About this time the Tories made another raid to Tinton Falls, and took seven prisoners. Another party took Mr. Bowne prisoner at Middletown, who but three days before had been ex- changed and had just got home.
About the last of April the Refugees attacked the house of John Holmes, Up- per Freehold, and robbed him of a large amount of continental money, a silver watch, gold ring, silver buckles, pistols, clothing, &c.
June Ist, 1780. The noted Colonel Tye, a mulatto, and formerly a slave in Mon- mouth county, with his motley company of about twenty blacks and whites carried off' prisoners Captain Barney Smock and Gilbert Van Mater, spiked an iron cannon and took four horses. Their rendezvous was at Sandy Hook.
THE ATTACK ON CAPTAIN HUDDY AT COLTS NECK.
Howe's Historical Collections of New Jer- sey, as the compiler of that work probably obtained his information from aged per- sons living in 1842, when he visited the locality.
After mentioning that the dwelling in which Captain Huddy resided during the war, was then owned by Thomas G. Haight, Esq., and standing in a central part of Colts Neck, he say: :
Huddy distinguished himself on various occasions during the war, and became an object of terror to the Tories. In the sum- mer of 1780, & party of about 60 refugees, commanded by Tye, a mulatto, one even- ing attacked this dwelling. Huddy, as- sisted only by a servant girl aged about twenty years, defended it for some length of time. Several muskets were fortunate- ly left in the house by the guard generally stationed there, but at this time absent .- These she loaded, while Huddy by appear- ing at different windows and discharging them, gave the impression that there were many defenders. He wounded several and at last, while setting fire to the house, he shot their leader, Tye, in the wrist .- Huddy finding the flames fast increasing. agreed to surrender, provided they would extinguish the fire.
It is said that the enemy on entering were much exasperated at the feebleness of the defenders, and could with difficulty be restrained by their leader from butcher- ing them on the spot. They were obliged to leave, as the militia soon collected and killed six on their retreat. They carried off with Huddy several cattle and sheep from the neighborhood, but lost them fording the creeks. They embarked on board their boats near Black Point between Shrewsbury and Navisink rivers. As the boats pushed off from shore, Huddy jump- ed overboard and was shot in the thigh as was supposed by the militia, then in close pursuit. He held up one of his hands to- wards then exclaiming, " I am Huddy ! 1 am Huddy !" swam to the shore and es- caped.
The name of the heroine who loaded the muskets for Huddy, says the above writer, was Lucretia Emmons, afterwards Mrs. Chambers, and she died at Freehold about 20 years before his visit.
Titus or Col. Tye as he was commonly called, usually commanded a mongrel crew of negroes and tories. He died of lockjaw, occasioned by the wound in his
Sept. 1780. It is perhaps proper to give | wrist. He was a slave of John Corlies, and first the version of this affair as found in Iwas born and bred in the south part of
73
OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
this township. He was an honorable, brave, but headstrong man. Several acts of generosity are remembered of him, and he was justly more respected as an enemy than many of his brethren of a fairer com- plexion.
Marks of the fire were plainly discerna- ble when the above writer visited the house in June, 1842, and on the eastern end of the house were several bullet holes.
In a Philadelphia paper published at the time, is a letter from Monmouth coun- ty dated Sept. 9th, 1780, which gives a version of this affair, stated to have been on the authority of Captain Huddy him- self. The following is the substance of the letter :
" There were 72 men attacked him at his residence at Colts Neck. They were under the command of Lieutenant Joseph Parker and William Hewlett, and com menced the attack about an hour before day. They commenced staving a window to pieces, which aroused Huddy ; the girl helped him to defend himself. Mrs. Hud- dy and another woman tried to persuade him to surrender, as defense was useless. Tye, "one of Lord Dunmore's crew," re ceived a severe wound. After Huddy sur- rendered, they plundered the house. The fight lasted two hours. Six militia men carne near and fired and killed their com- mander. Ensign Vincent and sixteen of the State Regiment attacked the refugees as they embarked, and wounded Huddy. The firing made confusion in the boats, and one overset and Huddy swam ashore."
The letter adds that the refugees made a silent, shameful retreat. loaded with dis- grace, and the Americans made quite mer- ry over the fact that it took seventy-two of the enemy two hours to take one man.
Oct. 15th, 1781 A party of refugees from Sandy Hook, landed at night at Shrewsbury and marched undiscovered to Colts Neck and took six prisoners. The alarm reached the Court House about four or five o'clock, P. M., and a number of in habitants, among whom was Dr. Nathaniel Scudder, went in pursuit. They rode to Black Point to try to recapture the six Americans, and while firing from the bank Dr. Scudder was killed.
Dr. Scudder was Colonel of the First Regiment Monmouth Militia, and one of the most prominent, active and useful patriots of Monmouth, and his death was a severe loss to the Americans. He was buried with all the honors of war. Gen- eral Forman's original order to Captain
Walton to bury Dr. Scudder with all the honors of war, was presented to the New Jersey Historical Society in May, 1847, by Mrs. Forman.
About the beginning of Angust, 1782, Richard Wilgus, an American, was shot below Allentown, while on guard to prevent contraband trade with the British.
February 8th, 1782. About forty refu- gees under Lieutenant Steelman, came over Sandy Hook to Pleasant Valley .- They took twenty horses and five sleighs which they loaded with plunder; they also took several prisoners, viz ; Hendrick Henderson and his two sons, Peter Coven- hoven, Esq., ( Esq. Covenhoven or Cono ver as the name is now called, was made prisoner once before, in 1779, as before re- lated,) Garret Hendrickson, Samuel B wwne and son and Jaques Denise. At Garret Hendrickson's a young man named Wil- liam Thompson got up slyly and went and informed Captain John Schenck, of Colo- nel Holmes' regiment, who collected all the men he could to pursue. They over- took and attacked the refugees, and the before mentioned William Thompson was killed and William Cottrell wounded .- They however took twelve refugee prison- ers, three of whom were wounded. But in returning, they unexpectedly fell în with a party of sixteen men under Stevenson, and a sudden firing caused eight of the prisoners to escape. But Captain Schenck ordered his men to charge bayonet and the tories surrendered. Captain Schenck retook nineteen horses and five streep, and took twenty-one prisoners.
The first of the foregoing extracts relat. ing to the raid of the British in Middle. town township in 1778, and then landing near Major Kearney's in the vicinity of Keyport, is probably the affair referred to in a tradition given in Howe's Histórical Collections, which we append, as it ex- plains why the refugees fled so precipitate- ly. It will be noticed, however, that it does not agree with the extract quoted as to damage done, but we are inclined to believe that the extract copied from the ancient paper (Collins' Gazette) is correct, as it was written but a few days after the affair took place.
"The proximity of this part of Mon- mouth county to New York, rendered it, in the war of the Revolution, peculiarly liable to the incursions of the British troops. Many of the inhabitants, although secretly favorable to the American cause, were obliged to feign allegiance to the
74
OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
crown or lose their property by maraud- ing parties of refugees from vessels lying off Sandy Hook. Among those of this description was Major Kearney, a resident near the present site of Keyport. On one occasion, a party of thirty or forty refugees stopped at his dwelling on their way to Middletown Point, where they intended to burn a dwelling and some mills. Kear- ney feigned gratification at their visit, and falsely informed them that there were probably some rebel troops at the Point, in which case it would be dangerous to march thither. He ordered his negro ser- vant Jube thither to make inquiry, at the same time giving him secretly the cue to act. In due length of time, Jube, who had gone but a short distance, returned and hastily entered the room where Kear- ney and the refugees were, and exclaimed, " Oh, Massa ! Massa ! the rebels are at the Point thick as blackberries! They have just come down from the Court House and say they are going to march down here to-night." The ruse succeeded ; the ref- ugees, alarmed, precipitately fled. retreat- ed to their boats, leaving the Major to re- joice at the success of the stratagem which had saved the property of his friends from destruction."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.